Blue Planet Journey

Caroline and I sailed on the world's largest cruise ship, the Wonder of the Seas ( WOTS ), April 20 through May 12, 2022. The WOTS is operated by Royal Caribbean, and has  18 decks. When full, the ship has 2,300 crew members and accommodates up to 6,988 guests across its 2,867 staterooms. We were on this ship for 4 consecutive cruises (more on this later). For the first cruise, from Fort Lauderdale (FL) to Barcelona (Spain), there were "only" 3,648 passengers, which was 52% of capacity. We were on one of the last cruises in January, 2020, before the industry shut down. That was on the  Royal Caribbean's  Allure of the Seas . Two weeks later, the  crew and guests on the cruise ship  Diamond Princess  were quarantined in a Japanese port. For us, it was a lucky miss.  Now, we were on the WOTS . On February 15, 2022, Royal Caribbean lifted their mask mandate, and no masks were required for vaccinated passengers, although all crew used KN95 masks at al...

Who hasn't heard of or been warned about "yo-yo dieting?"  Your weight goes up and down as does your dress or pant size, and your body is stressed because of it.  And remember those friends telling you about their fabulous, no-fail diet plan, like the South Beach Diet, the Zone Diet, the Atkins Diet, the Paleo Diet, and the Macrobiotic Diet?  Where are the champions of these diets today? I've never been on a weight loss diet (knock on wood).  I recognize that there are many, many people who have worked very hard to lose weight, sometimes resorting to medical or surgical options to get their weight down.  I applaud them for the focus on their health.  The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has this to say about the health consequences of obesity : People who are obese, compared to those with a normal or healthy weight, are at increased risk for many serious diseases and health conditions, including the following: •  All-causes of ...

Everyone has their coronavirus pandemic story for 2020, and this is mine. The uniqueness of it is that Caroline and I lived out of a suitcase, away from Utah, for at least half of it. Dancing and drumming at Nokomis Beach Park on January 1. The year started with us in Venice, Florida, visiting family and celebrating the New Year. We kayaked to Don Pedro Island State Park, rode bikes and ran along the beach in Manasota Key, danced at the drum circle at Nokomis Beach Park, toured a rum distillery, explored the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota,  and played with our grand kiddo. It was a great celebration, welcoming a new year of mystery, love, and adventure. Green sea turtle egg fragments on a Florida beach. We were honored to be trusted with transporting grand kiddo back to DC, and we were met by our number one daughter in the baggage area at National Airport. We spent the next 2 weeks being grandparents, walking with kiddo to the National Zoo to watch the marine mammals and the lions, go...